Mandalaabad, where the beautiful art form of Mandala comprising concentric circles and intricate patterns have been manifested into a city, is a work of art in itself that houses the accretion of urban fabric patterns of the city over a period of more than 10 centuries. At the nucleus of the city is the old kingdom’s fort. Twelve main roads emerge from the fort area that leads to the twelve gates serving as the grand entrances into the core city, further guarded by the river on one half and the fort wall around the other half. The divisions of the circle encompassing the fort into twelve parts are the puras, settlements of the communities that flourished under the reign of the emperor then. Each of these divisions consists of major roads converging into the main plaza, locally known as chowkdi, that further branches out into perplexing streets leading to community chowkdis and houses. As one walks through these areas they feel lost, both in terms of being unable to orient themselves as well as metaphorically getting lost in the new worlds that open up in front of them. One sees a spillover of private space-oriented activities into the public realm, individual houses lined transforming into a collective one and one starts getting a sense of the place. The patterns of the mandala can be seen carved into the brackets of the houses, the door frames, the windows and columns on the otla (raised platforms) and represent the magnificence of the city. To someone new to the city there exists a new world full of surprises and to someone accustomed to the city exists the world that they built themselves piece by piece.

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Over time, the city expanded outside the limits of the fort wall, where one could reach to the other side of the city through the bridges over the river. The mosaic of the city changes, one finds it less mystifying as more order arises. However, the same yet different characteristic persists in these interfaces where the old city transcends into the so-called new city. Newer patterns and hierarchies emerge that seem more like a beautifully organized chaos, the part that people refer to as the modernist mandala. Built by the people of the city, philanthropists, artists and designers, the city houses whoever seeks a better chance at life. The hustle and bustle persist as people flock to and from work, vendors on the street and nukkads shouting the prices of their items, children playing, people talking and walking, all of this coming together out on the lines that mark the streets on the map of Mandalaabad. Further from this comes another edge of the city marked by a broad ring road. On crossing over the wide road beyond the interface lies the periphery of the city where the urban mountains instead of the traditional rocky mountains, that is, the mountainous buildings cohere the patterns of the city followed by the agricultural lands as the extensions of the city.

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As one looks from above, the city seems conventionally like a Mandala, yet it is concomitantly unconventional. The concentric circles with ornated patterns of street networks in each of the segments have resembling labyrinthine paths but as one zooms into it, they realize that is seldom the case, as all of them uniquely prevail. One can question whether or not the characterization of the city as a mandala holds true when­­­ it doesn’t include a repetition of geometric patterns, which is true as it doesn’t categorize as the traditional mandala. Nevertheless, the city fabric falls into the broader understanding of it, one which represents the wholeness of life in the smaller world created within the world where the quintessence of the city lies in the street manifested as the embellishments of the mandala map that represent the organization structure of life, the life of Mandalaabadis.